Olympic venues to be redeveloped
- Source: Global Times
- [00:15 June 18 2009]
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By Lin Jiasi and Wang Anna
Several of Beijing’s Olympic venues will be redeveloped as commercially viable cultural and tourist attractions, a senior official said yesterday.
“Some sites will be transformed into public spaces for use as concert or conference venues,” Du Wei, vice-president of the Beijing Olympic Economy Research Association, told the Global Times, without elaborating.
The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube will be redeveloped after the National Day Holiday in October and will be managed by commercial firms for a period of 35 years, he said.
The Bird’s Nest made 300 million yuan ($44 million) in the first half of this year but tourist numbers have been in decline since last year, Wang Chun, deputy director of the Olympic Park Management, told the Beijing News yesterday.
“The National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) needs to generate at least 200 million yuan a year just to cover the initial investment and maintenance fees,” he said at a seminar held by Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
About 3.6 billion yuan has already been spent on the construction and operation of the Bird’s Nest, he said.
The Beijing Olympic Committee will soon end its term of operating the venue and the National Audit Office is conducting its final phase of auditing.
Meanwhile, the committee told the Global Times yesterday that some of its employees are now working on other events such as the Guangzhou Asian Games and the Shanghai World Expo.